There have been
others who claimed to have made the fateful attack on General Rommel on July 17,
1944. Their claims, for one reason or another, haven’t held up through the
years. That leaves Charley Fox , D.F.C and Bar, of 412 (Canadian) squadron.

Charley was
in exactly the right place at the right time. His logbook entry for the day
says he was flying his usual aircraft (VZ-F) on armed recce duty. Time in the
air was 1:15. Under the “results and remarks” column is the seemingly routine
entry “1 staff car destroyed”. A question mark, added later, precedes the word “Rommel”,
and then….the word “Yes”.

Charley’s
telling of the story contradicts many of the published versions, in some of the
details. Many of these seem to be re-writes of the same account.

Why did
Charley not come forward before? Following, in his own words, are his thoughts
on the matter…..

“Field
Marshal Rommel was respected by both sides as “The Desert Fox”. According to
some researchers, he had the promise of 11 of the 12 Generals under him, that,
if it came to a choice, they would follow his orders, rather than Hitler's
directives. He was convinced that if he did as Hitler wanted, many of his men
would be killed, and his army wiped out. The Falaise Gap slaughter in August of
that year proved him to be right. There were rumours that he was prepared to
meet General Montgomery secretly, in person, to arrange for an "Honourable Cease
Fire" to end the war.

Many veterans in the three services, including myself, had feelings of guilt,
and did not like to talk about their war experiences because of the big
question: "Why not me?"

"Why did my friends, my
buddies in various services...why did my squadron or my wing members die? ...and
not me?”

In recent
years, doing colour commentaries at air shows, I have come to the conclusion
that my mission is to make sure that all the stories I know get told... that the
record gets set straight for posterity. To this end, I am currently working on a
book: “Untold Stories – Unsung Heroes”.

Here are
my recollections of the events of July 17, 1944….

In the
late afternoon, 412 (Canadian) Spitfire Squadron took off on an armed "recce".
We were part of 126 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force, based at Beny-Sur-Mur, just
inland from Juno beach in Normandy.

Three sections of four aircraft, led by our C/0, S/L leader Jack Shepherd, got
airborne and then broke up into three separate flights. These were led by the
C/0, F/L Rob Smith D.F.C. and myself.

I
spotted a large black car travelling at high speed along a road with trees on
either side. It was coming towards us, on my left, at about 11 o'clock.
I maintained steady, level flight until the vehicle passed us at 9 o'clock. I
then began a curving, diving attack to my left, with my number two following to
watch my tail. The other two aircraft maintained their height, keeping an eye
out for enemy activity. I started firing at approximately 300 yards, and hit the
staff car, causing it to crash. At the time, I had no idea who it was...just a
large black open car...gleaming in the sun without any camouflage, which was
unusual.

The
Americans claimed that one of their P-47s had shot up Rommel.

OK... end
of story, as far as I was concerned.

However... .A day or so later, in reporting the attack on Rommel, the Germans
specifically said, "No! It was a Spitfire that had done it!"

Meanwhile, things were happening rapidly on the war front. Our wing and others
were flying constantly, two and three trips a day. As we were based close to the
front lines with the Navy in the Channel, every night was filled with constant
bombardment. We only dozed, and got very little real sleep. At the time, the
question of "Who got Rommel?" was not a priority.

As the war of liberation
progressed, and with the sequence of events that followed Rommel's recovery, it
became even less important.

Later,
word got out about General Rommel being implicated in the assassination attempt
on Hitler. He was given the choice to commit suicide or be executed. I never
felt comfortable about the attack... because of the man, the soldier that Rommel
was. And, because of the events of that day, there will always be the big
question…

What if I
hadn't made a successful attack? What if he hadn't been hurt? What if the Field
Marshal had talked to Monty? What if?... ..What if?...... What if?